An increasing number of live and recorded video and audio programs are being delivered to users via the Internet. Thanks to advances in bandwidth availability, media compression and computing power, more and more users enjoy programs delivered to their mobile and other computing devices. Rather than downloading entire programs for viewing, it is becoming increasingly common to “stream” programs to users by transmitting video or audio data to user devices in a steady, continuous stream. A number of streaming protocols are commonly used, including HTTP Live Streaming promoted by Apple®, Smooth Streaming promoted by Microsoft®, and MPEG-DASH. These streaming protocols define how, for example, a data stream including video, audio, and possibly other ancillary data (e.g. cue points, time code, and closed captioning) is to be packaged or segmented for distribution to client devices.
Many providers of such video streams wish to insert ads or other information into the video streams. For example, one approach to inserting advertisements (or other information, such as scoreboards or other information associated with a program) is to synchronize the advertisements or other information with the video stream at a centralized location such as a studio, and then distribute the same stream to all viewers as a composite stream. In this approach, all viewers receive the same content at the same time. In such approaches, some dynamic advertisements may be inserted depending on viewer attributes, day parting rules, or other conditions, but the dynamic advertisement content is inserted at a known place in the media stream for all viewers. Such approaches do not allow for different viewers to view or interact with the content on different schedules. For example, a viewer is unable to pause or use a digital video recorder (“DVR”) style of playback of the stream.
One improvement to such approaches is to provide dynamic ad insertion into live video streams as described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0246661 (hereinafter, the “'661 publication”, which is under common ownership or control of the assignee of the present invention). In the '661 publication, ads are dynamically inserted into an HTTP-based live stream using pre-created segments using discontinuity markers. That is, in the '661 publication, discontinuity markers (such as those supported by the HTTP Live Streaming promoted by Apple®) are used to create convenient boundaries at the break points between program and commercial content.
It would be desirable to provide improved methods and systems for personalizing live stream delivery to users in a manner which allows the insertion of an ad (or other content) at any point in an HTTP live streaming segment and which supports live or DVR streams.